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James Rowan was born in Oklahoma City May 25, 1944. He graduated from Norman High School in 1962. After attending Kentucky University and Oklahoma University he graduated from Kansas State University with B.A. in History. He volunteered for the Army in 1967 and served two years in the infantry before enrolling at O.U. Law School in 1969.
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After graduation from law school in 1972, Mr. Rowan was an associate in the Law firm of Reed and Hurst in Sulphur, Oklahoma. In 1974 he received a Direct Commission in the United States Army Judge Advocate General Corps. His assignments included the 82nd Airborne Division at Fayetteville, North Carolina and the Defense Language School in Monterey, California to learn German before being stationed in Kaiserslautern, Germany for three years.
In 1982, Mr. Rowan joined the Oklahoma County Public Defenders office. From 1984 to 1986, Mr. Rowan was associated with B.J. Cooper in a civil litigation firm. In 1986 Mr. Rowan rejoined the Oklahoma County Public Defenders office where he served until 1992 when he joined the Capital Trial Division of the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System as a trial attorney. Over the course of his career James Rowan has been lead counsel in forty capital murder trials.
Mr. Rowan has defended approximately one hundred and thirty felony jury trials. From September of 1986 to September of 1992, Mr. Rowan defended seventy-one felony jury trials with a record of twenty-eight acquittals, twelve hung juries, and thirty-one convictions.
In 1998 Mr. Rowan was awarded the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System’s Award of Capital Trial Lawyer of the Year for successfully defending Patricia Jones, Alexis Perryman and Thomas Loveless. Each defendant avoided the death penalty.
In 2001, Mr. Rowan successfully defended Harley McKelvey in Caddo County. Two of Harley McKelvey’s fingerprints in blood were discovered on a baseball bat. The man had been beaten to death with a baseball bat found nearby. Mr. McKelvey was acquitted.
In 2002, Mr. Rowan was awarded the Lord Thomas Erskine Award by the Oklahoma Criminal Defense Lawyers Association in recognition of Mr. Rowan’s courageous advocacy over the span of his career.
Mr. Rowan is married and has two children. Sarah is a physician and Daniel is a first year law student at Lewis and Clark law school in Portland, Oregon. His wife Sherry holds a PhD in Education and is principal of Harding Fine Arts Academy in Oklahoma City.
Mr. Rowan is currently the Chairman of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.
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